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Carell will star in "Foxcatcher," about John E. du Pont, the heir who, in 1996, killed an Olympic wrestler in his home, reported Variety. The film will be directed by "Moneyball" helmer Bennett Miller, who wil be reunited with screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, the men who penned his first feature, "Capote."

Du Pont's a truly bizarre story, the likes of which can only happen to the super-wealthy. In the late '80s, du Pont turned a portion of the family estate outside of Philadelphia into a training facility for amateur wrestlers. But somewhere along the line, du Pont apparently slipped into the grips of paranoid schizophrenia, and in 1996 shot and killed Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Dave Schultz, and then barricaded himself inside for two days while he negotiated with police. He eventually died last year while in prison at the age of 72.

Carell's done a fair amount of dramedy in his career, including this year's "Crazy, Stupid, Love," but this sounds like a far heavier role than anything he's done before. Who knows, maybe Miller will do for du Pont what Gus Van Sant did for Pamela Smart in "To Die For," and manage to tell a truly tragic story in a respectfully amusing way. Miller has made only three other films in his 13 year career--"The Cruise," "Capote" and "Moneyball"--but he's yet to make a bad one, and they've all been distinctly different, so who knows what he has up his sleeve.

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